Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 10:47 AM

Rhythm Magazine
Claims for unemployment benefits dropped more than expected last week, Reuters reported. The claims dropped 15,000, rounding out the total week's claims to 281,000. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000, to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 for the week ended July 11, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Analysts predicted the claims would reach 285,000. The drop ended three straight weeks of increases, and experts are pointing to a solid labor market. While claims can increase during summer months due to factories closing for maintenance, some remain open for production.
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The confessed gunman in the massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, appeared in court Thursday morning and waived his right to a bond, NBC News reported.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:28 AM

NBC NEWS
The confessed gunman in the massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, appeared in court Thursday morning and waived his right to a bond, NBC News reported. Prosecutors presented their indictment against Dylann Roof, 21, who faces nine counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder and one count of weapons possession in the June 17 rampage at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Roof, who is being held without bond, entered the Charleston courtroom shackled and wearing a stripped grey prison jumpsuit. Circuit Court Judge J.C. Nicholson asked about Roof's competency evaluation. One of this two public defenders responded that he has an "online GED, he can read, he writes, he understands. I don't see any issue with competency at this time." A trial date was tentatively set for July 11, 2016.
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President Barack Obama went behind bars as he extends his campaign for reform in the criminal justice system, becoming the first sitting president to see inside a federal prison, NBC News reported.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 7:25 PM

President Barack Obama went behind bars as he extended his campaign for reform in the criminal justice system, becoming the first sitting president to see inside a federal prison, NBC News reported. The president visited the sprawling El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, a complex which includes sections of buildings separated by large green yards and barbed wire fences. While there, he met with six inmates in prison for drug offenses. "Every single one of them emphasized the fact that they had done something wrong, they are prepared to take responsibility for it, but they also urged us to think about how society could've reached them earlier on in life to keep them out of trouble," the president said. On Monday, the president commuted the federal prison sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders, 14 of whom were serving life terms. And on Tuesday, Obama argued for shortening or eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for those same offenders in a speech to the NAACP in Philadelphia.
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South Africa's retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has been hospitalized for a persistent infection, his charity announced on Facebook.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 9:25 AM

Getty Images
South Africa's retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has been hospitalized for a persistent infection, his charity announced on Facebook. The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said the 83-year-old anti-apartheid campaigner is "receiving an intensive course of antibiotics to quell a stubborn infection." It added that the Tutu family “has been overwhelmed by the deluge of love and prayers.” Tutu's official Facebook page also said that the retired archbishop's family "hopes he will be able to return home in a day or two." Tutu previously has been treated for prostate cancer, but his daughter Mpho told reporters Thursday that her father's infection was not related to his cancer.
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A frantic search has been underway for a 2-year-old toddler who vanished last Friday from his family's campsite outside rural Leadore, Idaho, NBC News reported.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 7:46 AM

Kunz Family
A frantic search has been underway for a 2-year-old toddler who vanished last Friday from his family's campsite outside rural Leadore, Idaho, NBC News reported. The family of Deorr Kunz Jr. said his parent's believed his grandfather was watching him at the campsite while his grandfather believed he was down by the creek with his parents. "Just in a split second, your whole world is upside down and vanished," Deorr Kunz Sr., Deorr's father, told East Idaho News Monday. Lemhi County Sheriff Lynn Bowerman told NBC's "Dateline" divers were searching the Stone Reservoir Wednesday after cadaver dogs indicated there may be more there to find. A comprehensive search of the 2.5-mile radius of the family's campsite turned up no clues.
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Officials said Two bodies have been recovered from wreckage matching the description of a crashed plane at the center of a teenage girl's dramatic survival story in Washington, NBC News reported.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 7:03 AM

AP
Officials said Two bodies have been recovered from wreckage matching the description of a crashed plane at the center of a teenage girl's dramatic survival story in Washington, NBC News reported. Autumn Veatch, 16, walked for around two days through the wilderness after the Beech A-35 she and her step-grandparents were flying in crashed in the northern part of the state. Officials have been searching for her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, and the wreckage. The Skagit County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Wednesday that wreckage matching Veatch's plane had been found about 100 miles from Seattle. The bodies were not being identified until the next of kin had ben informed.
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President Barack Obama telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to thank him for his part in the recent nuclear deal with Iran, the White House said.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 4:00 AM

AP
President Barack Obama telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to thank him for his part in the recent nuclear deal with Iran, the White House said. Obama thanked Putin for Russia's role in achieving the milestone agreement, "the culmination of nearly 20 months of intense negotiations," the statement said. It added that Obama and Putin agreed to remain in close touch as the Iran deal is implemented and would work together to reduce tensions in the Middle East, particularly in Syria.
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A firefighter and former Marine took down a would-be armed robber and it was all caught on camera at a Texas gas station.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 12:38 AM

A firefighter and former Marine took down a would-be armed robber and it was all caught on camera at a Texas gas station, NBC News reported. Security video shows the man entering the Exxon Oasis Food Store in Midlothian on June 26, and shoving a customer — later identified as Daniel Gaskey — aside before demanding money from the clerk while wielding a knife. Gaskey puts his hands up, pauses a moment, and then springs into action, jumping on the robber's back, dragging him to the ground, and holding him there until police arrived, Midlothian police said. The suspect, Dylan Bearden, 19, was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, police said. He remained held in lieu of $200,000 bond at the Ellis County Jail Wednesday, according to jail records.
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President Barack Obama has unveiled a new initiative as part of his pledge to expand high-speed broadband access to all Americans.

Thursday, Jul 16, 2015 at 12:08 AM

President Barack Obama has unveiled a new initiative as part of his pledge to expand high-speed broadband access to all Americans. Speaking from Durant, Oklahoma, the president on Wednesday introduced ConnectHome, a pilot project to help "close the digital divide" by bringing broadband to poorer communities. "In this digital age when you can apply for a job, take a course, pay your bills, order pizza, even find a date" by using your connected phone, Obama said, "the internet is not a luxury, it's a necessity." For now, ConnectHome comprises 27 cities and one Indian tribe (the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) that have agreed to aggressively pursue equipping those in need with high-speed Internet connections.
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The first pictures sent back by NASA's New Horizons probe after this week's unprecedented Pluto flyby reveal towering mountains made of frozen water — and a giant dark impact basin on top of its biggest...

Friday, Jul 17, 2015 at 1:04 PM

NASA
The first pictures sent back by NASA's New Horizons probe after this week's unprecedented Pluto flyby reveal towering mountains made of frozen water — and a giant dark impact basin on top of its biggest moon, Charon. The scientists who are leading the team say even they are flummoxed by the images from an icy, alien realm on the edge of the solar system, 3 billion miles (5 billion kilometers) away. "Who'd have supposed that there are ice mountains?" Johns Hopkins University's Hal Weaver, project scientist for the New Horizons mission, said Wednesday during a news briefing here at JHU's Applied Physics Laboratory. Principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute called the findings "balloon-busting."
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France prevented several terrorist attacks this week, according to the country's president Francois Hollande.

Wednesday, Jul 15, 2015 at 4:04 PM

France prevented multiple terrorist attacks this week, the country's president Francois Hollande said a day after two explosions rocked a petrochemical site near Berre-l'Etang by Aix-en-Province. "Several terrorist attacks were thwarted this week," Hollande said on French national television station BFMTV 24 news. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said earlier Wednesday that the explosions were "criminal acts, but the motivation has not yet been established." Cazeneuve said that on "Monday, July 13, at dawn, four individuals between the age of 16 to 23, (including one who was) a former military in the national navy" were arrested.
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Greek anti-establishment protesters threw stones and dozens of gasoline bombs at police in front of parliament on Wednesday before a key vote on a bailout deal, in some of the most serious violence in more than...

Wednesday, Jul 15, 2015 at 3:51 PM

Greek anti-establishment protesters threw stones and dozens of gasoline bombs at police in front of parliament on Wednesday before a key vote on a bailout deal, in some of the most serious violence in more than two years, Reuters reported. Police responded with tear gas, sending hundreds of people fleeing in central Syntagma Square. Garbage cans and a vehicle belonging to a television crew were also set on fire. The clashes were brief and calm largely returned to the square, with a few hundred protesters staying on under heavy police surveillance.
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Former top U.S. health insurer regulator, Marilyn Tavenner, will lead the insurance industry lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans, the group announced Wednesday.

Wednesday, Jul 15, 2015 at 3:42 PM

Former top U.S. health insurer regulator, Marilyn Tavenner, will lead the insurance industry lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans, the group announced Wednesday. Until last February, Tavenner was Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Tavenner was responsible for the individual insurance created under the national healthcare reform law, often called Obamacare. She was confirmed by the Senate in May of 2013 and oversaw the troubled rollout of Healthcare.gov.
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Disney is coming to China. The corporation's CEO announced Wednesday the first Disney theme park in Shanghai China is in the works, with a promise to be "authentically Disney and distinctive Chinese."

Wednesday, Jul 15, 2015 at 2:29 PM

ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
Disney is coming to China. The corporation's CEO announced Wednesday the first Disney theme park in Shanghai China is in the works, with a promise to be "authentically Disney and distinctive Chinese." There will be vintage Disney, too, with amusements based on institutions such as Mickey Avenue and Fantasyland, as well as sections celebrating Marvel Comic superheroes like Iron Man and the Hulk, both of which are popular in China. The $5.5 billion estate follows the unveiling of Hong Kong Disneyland, which required massive expansion after opening with too small a capacity.
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NASA officials are holding a media briefing to reveal new images of Pluto and discuss findings from Tuesday's Pluto fly-by.